Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1176: Trap Bar vs. Straight Bar Deadlifts, Using Strength Training to Battle Depression & Anxiety, the Benefits of Caffeine Cycling & MORE

Episode Date: December 4, 2019

In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin answer Pump Head questions about whether trap bar deadlifts as good as straight bar deadlifts, exercises someone can do to repair poor thoracic mobility, the benefits of strength training when battling depression and anxiety, and the benefits of caffeine cycling. MIIR delivering high-quality products and giving back in the process. (4:47) How do you know your charitable money is going to the RIGHT place? (8:09) Recapping the guy’s Thanksgiving weekend with their families. (13:46) Why just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. (22:33) Why do some compounds, like the Chaga mushroom, have adaptogenic properties? (26:13) The science behind how binge-watching porn affects your brain. (31:27) Mark McGrath can help you break up with your significant other. (34:37) Why celebrity is a bit of a curse. (37:15) Is there a correlation between social media use and lack of well-being? (40:48) Google fights deep fakes by releasing their own. (47:08) #Quah question #1 - Are trap bar deadlifts as good as straight bar deadlifts? (48:48) #Quah question #2 – What are some exercises someone can do to repair poor thoracic mobility? (55:32) #Quah question #3 - What are the benefits of strength training when battling depression and anxiety? (1:03:55) #Quah question #4 – What are the benefits of caffeine cycling and how should I do it? (1:12:46) People Mentioned Justin "ᴛʜᴇ ʙɪɢ ᴘʏɢᴍʏ" Wren (@thebigpygmy)  Instagram Shawn Baker MD (@shawnbaker1967)  Instagram Nir Eyal (@neyal99)  Instagram Cory Schlesinger (@schlesstrength)  Instagram   Related Links/Products Mentioned December Promotion: MAPS Aesthetic ½ off! **Code “BLACK50” at checkout** Visit MIIR for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! World Vision: Sponsor A Child Charity Navigator - Your Guide To Intelligent Giving | Home Dr Robert Lockhart Death | Fruitarian Dies Of Organ Failure Visit Four Sigmatic for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Code “mindpump” at checkout** Everything You Need To Know About Chaga: The King of Medicinal Mushrooms Watching pornography rewires the brain to a more juvenile state Sugar Ray’s Mark McGrath Helps Fan Break Up with Her Long Distance Boyfriend Cameo - Personalized Shoutouts Abstaining From Social Media Doesn’t Improve Well-Being, Experimental Study Finds Mind Pump 1140: Nir Eyal Google fights deepfakes by releasing 3,000 deepfakes How to Trap Bar Deadlift – MP TV Exercises That You Probably Aren’t Doing That You Should Be Doing For Maximum Muscle Gain – Mind Pump Blog Lizard with Rotation – MP TV Prime Bundle | MAPS Fitness Products - Mind Pump The Best Form of Exercise – Mind Pump Blog Mind Pump Free Resources

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND on Instagram page, MindPump Media, they post the question underneath the meme picture that says, Qua, we pick our favorite questions and then we answer them. And before we get into the questions, we talk about studies, we talk about our lives, our sponsors, training and fun stuff. So here's what we talked about in this episode of MindPump. We started by talking about charity.

I brought up a website that you can actually check your charity on there to see where the money is going, how much the people who run the charity are getting paid. It's actually quite interesting. And that reminded Adam to bring up one of our sponsors, Mir, the maker of phenomenal drinking cups and insulated containers has donated over a million dollars to various charities. So they're really, really good company. And we are sponsored by them. And we do have a discount if you want to get any of their products.

So just go to mere. That's m-i-i-r.com and use the code MindPump and you'll get 25% off your entire order. Then we talked about our Thanksgiving with our families and you'll get 25% off your entire order. Then we talked about our Thanksgiving with our families and friends. And I talked about the workout that I do the day after Thanksgiving with my cousins, brother, and this time Adam was there. So we had a good time.

We talked about the well-known fruititarian guy, I don't know what his name was, who just recently died of organ failure. Well, that's weird. That's weird. We talked about a chaga. I brought up chaga because I read some interesting information about chaga and it's adaptogenic properties.

If you are interested in supplementing with chaga, we recommend you go with four sigmatic. They're one of our sponsors, and they have some of the highest quality dual extraction process type chaga you will find. We also have a discount for you. If you go to four sigmatic, that's F-O-U-R-S-I-G-M-A-T-I-C. .com-forge-sash-mind pump and use the code,

mind pump, you'll get 15% off. I talked about a study on pornography and its effects on the brain. We talked about how Mark McGrath broke up for someone on social media, which is funny. That's the move right there. I talked about social Mark McGrath broke up for someone on social media, which is funny. That's the move right there. I talked about social media and it's lack of connection to quality of life, but later on they found, a new study found that lots of social media use doesn't mean you're lowering your quality of life. And then Justin brought up how Google is trying to fight deep fake videos.

Then we got into the questions. The first question, this person wants to know if trap bar deadlifts are as good as straight bar deadlifts. We talk about the benefits of each and how they differ from each other. The next question, this person wants to know what exercises they can do to repair poor thoracic mobility, thoracic referring to the upper back and shoulder area. So we talk about exercises to help with improving mobility there. The next question, this person wants to know how strength training can benefit or help people

who are battling depression and anxiety. And the final question, this person wants to know, if there's any benefits to cycling, caffeine use. Also this month, definitely one of our most popular programs. This is our body builder, body sculpting muscle building, body shaping program. Maps aesthetic is 50% off. So and it's all month long, Maps aesthetic 50% off.

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Go to mapsblack.com and use the code black50black50 no space for the discount. T-shirt time! And it's T-shirt time! Oh shit, Doug, you know it's my favorite time of the week! Well, we have three review winners. We have from iTunes to winners Esther McConnell and C I R E D A H C. For Facebook, we have Brooke Dauier, all of you are winners. And the name I just read to iTunes at MindPumpMedia.com include your shirt size, your shipping address, and we'll get that shirt right out to you.

I don't know if you guys got a chance to look at the mirror website, but they actually update, you know, last time I think, Sal, you brought this up that all of their proceeds from Black Friday was going to go towards some of the work that they're doing. Like the charity? Yeah, 100%. Yeah, 100%. Right. That's crazy. They've already got over a million I think they're almost at 1.1 million dollars and over 61 projects from from that that's that just from black Friday or is that since they've been in business?

I'm not sure I don't remember I don't remember the counter being up there before I'm not sure that's a good question, but I mean I definitely would have remembered if it was in the millions of dollars that they've already got that they're donating and putting out there, which is just phenomenal. It seems to be a strategy of like high quality brands now, doesn't it? To show that you're giving to a charity of some sort or you're doing something for the community that's not like that? I think there's some people that are doing it for those reasons. I don't, when we met Brian and when we got to, you know, hang out with him the few times

that we've been together, I don't get that impression from him. He comes from... No, it's genuine. Yeah, well, he comes from a family that has money and has things. And I think he, that was when he started the project, when he started Mir, I think his intentions of doing that were to do something that he could give back with before versus, he really wants to make an impact.

Right, versus, hey, you know, this is how companies today, you gotta make sure you're donating to something. I don't think it was like a major strategy. It's a part of some company. It's a major strategy play now. Yeah, because what I mean is like, in the past, and a lot of people argue that this is the better way to do it, is you profit, you do as well as you can.

And then off of your profit, donate, you know, what you think is right or whatever. What a lot of companies are doing now is that the charity is part of the business plan. It's almost like another, it's a bill, it's a debtor, you know what I mean? Like for every, you know, dollar that we Like, if for every dollar that we make, guaranteed we have to give, no you're right.

I've seen that a lot like from the very beginning, like they've carved that part of the, you know, the business off as like, this is how we're gonna structure the business versus like, let's get profitable and then see how we can then contribute. Now, in my opinion, it's a, that's a risky play, right? Because you're in part of your business plan,

you're already putting another partner, even though it's a charity. Right. But so, in order to do that, you have to be, you have to have very high quality product. You have to do a damn good job because you're literally signing on another partner essentially. Oh, I mean, and they've been exploiting.

They're crushing. They also have, I thought this was really cool because I was on there checking that out. They have like a holiday link up there on their website now, and they put together all these packages. Like fun-to-old packages? Yes, and it's really smart, really cool.

So if you're shopping for family and friends, I already grabbed a couple of things for some of my family members that I think are, would love, you know, so I think. Yeah, I have a lot of outdoorsy kind of people in my family and I saw that too. Because like I remember we talked about a long time ago, is that like origami kind of filter thing that you can bring with you, like outside to brew your own, you know, one cup coffee.

I thought that dude, I love that. I want that product. And they had that like kind of bundled up with like the camp cup and all that. Do you guys get during the holiday season, do you find yourself being more charitable? I know that's a normal thing. I know charity goes through the roof during the holidays, but do you guys find that for yourselves personally? Well, up until I think it was last year was my first year not doing the adopting the

family. So I think it's now I'm going on two years now where I haven't done that, but that's been like a tradition for me personally that I've been doing for well over, well before I even met Katrina that every year, I like to do that. That's it. I was at my mom's house the other night,

and she's, as long as I can remember, she's always had a picture of a kid that she sponsors through, I think it's called World Vision. I think World Vision is the... Yeah. And since I was a kid, she'll pay monthly to this organization and then what it does is it puts the kid through school, it gives them, you know, helps the family, you know, support their family or whatever.

And the picture will change every once in a while because once the kid gets to a certain age, then you work with another kid. And you get these like updates of, so I was looking into this. And you know, my challenge in the past, not that this is a, I guess this is a challenge for some people is how do you know your money

is going to the person? Well, that's why I like to adopt the family was because I actually, you're right there. You saw it. Yeah, I used to go and I get a matri, so I'd go put the tree up in their house and I'd see their kids and I see where they lived, how they lived, and then I would go and...

We'll also check this out. We'll also check... There's a website now where you can kind of fact check while he's charitable organizations. That's it. So that's what I was doing. So when I saw that on my mom's fridge, and I'm like, you know, it's about time I do something like that.

Like I think I'm gonna do something like that. And so I went and did some research on the same charity because the last thing I want to do is give, you know, money to some wealthy person in a third world country and none of it get to, you know, the people I wanted to go to. There's a website called Charity Navigator, and on this website, so let me see what the actual website,

I think is charitynavigator.org, and you go on there, and you can type in whatever charity, and they'll rate it and rank it, and they'll have everything on there. They'll talk about, yeah, like they'll talk about. It has like every charity, or all the major ones, I guess. It gives you the financial performance metrics and has accountability and transparency Performance metrics. It'll tell you their financial charts their IRS data the compensation of their leaders

I was like this is phenomenal. That's perfect Isn't it? Yeah, he's pulling it up right there. So cool So if you want to you know because the holiday season let people donate to, you know, they want to donate to them. You check on something like this because I've heard stories of, you know, I forgot where I'll watch this documentary one. I don't remember what the charities were, but this man did some research and he found that there's a lot of charities where you have like, it's wealthy people in first world countries giving it to wealthy people in third world countries and then they'll go and take pictures of kids and stuff in these villages and then they'll.

Such a hustle. Yeah, and so something like this, I think, is really cool, because you can enter it in and be like, you know, red cross or whatever. What if you wanted to go where you intended it to go? I mean, that's the part. People just don't like, I mean, you have this, like, you really want to help somebody out

and you're not even getting it to them, that's so frustrating. Yeah, and then it also talks about how they help. So is it like, do they just give them food, or do they set up schools? Do they give micro loans? I like that one. Well, you remember when we, was it Justin Renewalme interviewed, or maybe it was Brian, but I remember one of them was making me privy.

I had never, I didn't realize how important that was. What they do with the money is as important, if not more important than actually the amount or what they're giving because, and I'll use like, toms as an example, though I don't know, this is how this works because most people understand if you buy a pair of toms,

they send it to a family in need of a pair of shoes, right? But if you do that to a town, right, you come in and you say, oh, you know, our business is going to go to this third wheel country and we're gonna donate all shoes to this town. So they all, but there's two shoe makers that work in that town. Put them out of business.

Yeah, you put them out of business and it's like you think you're helping somebody, but you could really be here. That actually, so here's, we had a great scenario, or a great example, I should say, it was a terrible scenario, and a great example of that. In the 80s, there was this huge push to feed certain parts of Africa.

And you saw these huge concerts and feed the world and Western nations donated hundreds of millions of dollars worth of food to help feed, because there were people who were starving in some parts of these countries. And when it ended up happening, is yes, we gave people food, but within a couple generations,

they became completely dependent on this donated food. They lost the skills to farm and produce for themselves. And so we set up a, through good intentions, we created a terrible situation. So what I'm looking for in a charity is, okay, are you helping the people help themselves? Are you just giving them stuff which are you creating benefits to their economy

so they can trade amongst you? Totally, it's why I like the micro-loans. There's a charity that offer these micro-loans to people in these countries who they'll take the loan and they'll build businesses on their own. And I think that's phenomenal. Because, well, the dignity, they're building, they're actually providing value

and they're learning skills that they'll pass on to generations or whatever. I thought that was really cool. Did you guys have a good Thanksgiving or what? Yeah, yeah, it was fun. Got to spend a bunch of time with the family, play games and it was pretty much on lockdown. It's like, we made sure this time, at least we brought

a bunch of activities with us. Because we knew we'd just be sitting there staring at each other trying to talk about whatever the hell we could think of at the time. So it's like, give me some distraction, give me something. And so we bought this, there was this game it had like, it was almost like a dental device

that goes in your mouth. I saw this. Yeah. It looks creepy. It opens your mouth, it's real creepy. It's almost like a Maryland Manson video or something. It stretches your mouth open. You see nothing but gums and teeth.

And so you're supposed to like, you know, list off a couple of these like words and your partners are supposed to guess what you're trying to say. And it gets like, the bonus ones are like really difficult, especially anything with the B or yeah, and it's like, but it's funny because like, I think like, married couples, like, they should be like eliminated. They can't be on the same team.

It's too easy. Oh, you can guess. Yeah, it was really strange. Like the married couples, like me and Courtney, it was like, she didn't even have to really like say it more than once and I'm like, oh yeah, and I got it. You know, bread, you know, that's exactly what you said. It was just weird.

It was like, because you know all the little nuances and the ways that you play that game. Facial expression, yeah, you're brushing your teeth. Yeah. You know that kind of stuff. You know what you're saying? This is like the game we play it up. Yeah. Dude, I talked about your mouth open. The best I got to remember though, there was this one.

There was this one moment where like, why? Shea mouth. My son, Ethan. Okay. So the word was gutter balls, right? And so he's trying to he's trying to tell us gutter balls, but uh, no, one of my like, like so ever it said gutter. It was trying to say gutter balls and Ethan was guessing. And he's so he's like, glory holes. I just died. Dude, I was on the ground die. He had no idea obviously what that is But that's what he heard and we just didn't know what to do I was like this is the best reminds me of that you guys the video or the movie that salami me watch the good boys Is that what it's called? Oh?

Bad boys. What's it called? Yeah, it's a good good boys. I think it is good boys. Is it good boys? Yeah, where they're just start making up the for they hear the phrase once Yeah, you know, just say it because he obviously has hear the phrase once. Yeah, you don't just say it. Because he obviously has heard the phrase, right? I don't know where. He just put that together because it did kind of like a G and a B in or whatever. It sounded kind of like that. I was on dad's phone.

Yeah. Oh man. Oh no. I know. We had a really good Thanksgiving too. Nice to have the whole family together and enjoy each other. How big was yours? Typically, it's, I don't know, I should count next time.

It's probably around 40 to 50, I would guess, you know, because we have a lot of, you know, we have a big family. We had a good time, you know, of course ate a lot of food and had a lot of fun with the kids and a lot of stuff. And then this was the 11th year that we did the workout, the post Thanksgiving workout, where me, my cousins and my brother meet up the day after and then we do a heavy lift.

This time Adam was with us working out and it's funny because we're working out. And my brother is, he's a mousse. He's basically a mousse. He's fucking huge, right? He's like, he's six, two or six, three. Yeah. Two, thirty. He doesn't work out. Actually, no, he does work out. He does long distance cycling.

Okay. He rides his bike. Yeah. He doesn't look like a long distance. No, dude. And he never lifts weights and he comes in here. And he just rep in two, twenty five on the bench. Like, it's his fucking nothing. And Adam's just like, he goes, oh, it looks like your brother got all the genetics, huh? Like fucking shit. He's some of a bitch. You would be both a try.

No dude, he's just a massive, strong as fuck kid and I always make fun of him. Cause I'm like, do you just lift it weights? Yeah, you'd be like, you just cared. If you just did that. I feel like that tradition's slowly evolving though. It's turning more and more into less working out, more weed smoking and business talks.

Oh yeah, dude. Which is cool, I like it. It's cool, I like it. I like it, you know, last year, last year I think I got sore from the workout this year I have all kinds of ideas. Nobody cares what I do. Yeah, everybody shows up.

You know what they do? This is what they do, they prepare it, right? So the day before is when the shit starts, shit talking starts would be on text. But like, oh, I'm gonna, know that I'm gonna be the reigning champion Oh, I'm gonna be whatever this time it was like oh hurt my back last week So I don't think I'll be able to do oh yeah my knees bad so I can't squat Just let lift bench in squat that's no everybody kind of did their own thing

It's whatever typically it's whatever I pick, but I think nobody wants nobody cares anymore So they just come in here just whatever. So I was still getting all his massive pile He was pretty serious about his workout. I was more interested in it wasn't all the family had to say about you know Investments and stuff so we were over there. It's talking and then I go get a setting and come back Yeah, it was a good time. It was a good. How was your how was your thing good? It was this is probably one of the biggest We've ever had we. We had over 40, which is a lot for us. That's a ton. It was really cool because.

That's a big one for you. Yeah. I mean, Katrina's family is pretty big always. They are in the high, I think the smallest one I've ever had with her is like 20, 28 or so. So they're normally 30 plus. No, it's too simple. Right. But this year, it was all of them,

and then, you know, I had two parts of my family, excuse me, three different parts of my family actually show up. So we had some of my family, and then her big family, all together, which is cool, and they're a lot of my family members that I haven't had them all over for Katrina's Thanksgiving, which was cool. It was really cool. A lot of them. Now, is that at your house? No, this is at, oh no, God, we would never feel to fit all 40 in my place right now. This is at our mom's house, where we set it all up and we buffet style, right? Do you guys have any traditional foods that you

eat for Thanksgiving? Oh, it turns it just to Thanksgiving time. No, everybody has, I mean, my mom traditional foods that you eat for Thanksgiving. Oh, it turns it just the Thanksgiving time. No, everybody has, I mean, my mom with her stuffing and her cheesecake, that's always a tradition. And then Katrina's niece always brings two or three new pies that she's making. We always do a traditional turkey in the oven and deep fry, another one.

Yeah, there's all kinds of traditional plates on there. Dude, I ate caramel apple pie. You ever have caramel apple pie? Was it out of an iron skillet? I have no idea where it came from. Bro, I've had one like that. Like in your skillet? Yeah, it was the best thing ever.

I can't even, I had to, I don't know what, I had to play mind games on myself to prevent myself from me. It was so good. It was so good, but I could feel diabetes happening as I was. I actually, I was creeping. I ate hardly anything on Thanksgiving Day. This was obviously my first Thanksgiving as a father. You're just running around, just playing with the baby.

My God, bro. I was just, I mean, I guess it was a combination of having my family there. And so there was obviously I wanted to make sure that they didn't isolate them. That big of a Thanksgiving and then having new people there, I wanted to make sure that they were having a good time. So part of me was also. You were the integrator? Yeah, integrating and hosting, you know, my family and introducing them to Katrina's family,

and then also having a child. So if I was not mitigating conversations or whatever, or making sure that everyone was good, I was in the back, you know, rocking him to sleep or changing diapers or whatever. And so I remember at about eight o'clock at night coming home and looking at Katrina and just being like, oh my God, I just, I want to relax.

So we had three Thanksgiving. So what did you do to just eat leftovers then? I did bring some leftovers. I didn't actually, I didn't eat like an asshole. Normally I do on the holidays. My mom made sure that I brought home my cheesecake and I did have a slice of that or I'll shoot be pissed. But my siblings came over yesterday

and pretty much crushed all of that. So I really didn't do too much damage. I didn't drink this year. Yeah, I didn't drink it. A lot of talking. I did, but I didn't even get a buzz. It was so depressing. Really?

Yeah. I don't know. I mean, probably a quarter of a bottle of vodka. Wow. Yeah. And you didn't get a buzz? Nothing. I bullshit.

I'm not even joking, and you know why? Because what's it called? Char-churculary, the- the board of like cheese and like all the spread of like all the stuff, like a- Oh, we're about to learn some science. No, like I just kept eating like, continuously and I was like sipping and I don't know. For some reason, like nothing happens.

Just as like cheese prevents cheese. The cheese prevents. Did you drink? Yeah, it's proven, proven science. Of course, speaking of food, did you hear about this fruititarian guy that just died of water crime? Yeah, no, I shut that over to our art friend.

I saw it on Sean Baker's Instagram first, and then I've been seen it pop all over the place. Now, when I read the article, it's definitely, a lot of people are speculating that it was he died of malnutrition. He was 70 something. He was 75. He was 75 years old.

He had been a fruititarian for 40 years, I believe. What a weird 40 years. What a weird of all the things diets, extreme diets you can do, fruititarian for 40 years, I believe. What a weird 40 years. What a weird of all the things diets, extreme diets you can do, fruititarian? Yeah. I feel like people just look at animals and think, oh look, a monkey, they're so strong, I should eat like a monkey.

That's exactly what it is. You know what I'm saying? Or whatever. You know what Steve Jobs was a fruititarian? Yeah. And then he had obviously, he got his pink, radic cancer, ashed in kutcher, tried to go fruititarian

and cause themselves health problems. That's a terrible, that's like, if you want fatty liver disease and issues, terrible, I can't believe people do this kind of shit. I can't believe you survived for that long. And that's what actually what happened was his liver shut down, right? Isn't that what the artist's?

Organ failure, I don't know if it was liver. I thought I read liver, so, but yeah, no, I thought that was interesting. And you know, here's a thing with humans. We obviously evolved during long periods of scarcity, and so we evolved being able to get away with eating a lot of different things, and being able to get away with not eating at all.

So just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Yeah, like, because I think people look at that and be like, oh look, he survived for 40 years eating only fruit, and then they think that means I should do this. Not only that. No, it doesn't mean you should.

Not only that, but a lot of times when people make the transition from whatever said diet or how are they are currently eating, right? Which is, you know, the American diet is terrible, right? And if all of a sudden you decide I'm gonna be a fruititarian, I'm gonna be a carnivore, I'm gonna be a vegetarian, I'm gonna do one of these things. And you go and you do that,

what's so hard to communicate to these people is they do that and then they get all these positive benefits. They feel inflammation go down, their energy level, they lose body fat, whatever the case may be. And I was just talking about this on a recent interview, is what it is, it's less of the diet that they're currently doing, and it's more of them eliminating something that they were probably eating or overeating before.

Or it's the one factor. You know what I mean? It's like, maybe their lack of fiber and their diet was causing them problems. So then they go pure vegan and they feel way better. And here's the thing with nutrient deficiencies. They can take a second before they turn into something bad. You can go without a nutrient for, because your body stores them, right?

And then what'll happen is symptoms will slowly start to creep up. And if you have this cognitive dissonance where you're like, no, this is the best diet ever, you start to ignore symptoms. You know, and you ignore the fact that your hair is falling out. I've had people, I've trained people like this where I had, you know, I can think of one lady in particular that she came to me and she had her hair falling out or her nails were weak. And she'd been vegan for super long. And finally, she went to the doctor and realized, oh, I got nutrient deficiencies. And she had to either supplement or eat, start eating, you know, meat to make up the difference for these types of things. So it's stupid. So fruititarian. What's the next thing? You know, I'm going to be a breadeditarian. I'll just make up some. That was so

like fun. I like the ones that were just eating air. I don't know what you call those things. Brethren. Brethren. I guess you put Aryan, Aryan, or Aryan at the end of whatever, then it I guess you put Aryan, Aryan, Aryan, or something at the end of whatever, then it's good or whatever. Anyway, Aryans are always bad. Exactly, yeah. Yeah, stay away from that, stay with the Aryans. So anyway, this weekend I was reading on Chaga,

which is the, Chaga is considered one of the king, like top mushrooms. And I first got introduced to Chaga years ago when somebody very close to me had cancer, terminal cancer. And when I went online, I was researching alternative treatments because there were no conventional treatments that would have helped her, the type of cancer that she had, which there was nothing that could help her that we knew of. So I went the alternative route because because hey, you know, I have nothing to lose. And the litmus test was,

because we know of all the stuff that has human clinical trials. So I went to animal trials. And I went to anecdote. And Chaga came up because Chaga, it's been known to be anti-cancer in animal trials for a long time. And the Chinese and the Russians

have been using it for cancer properties as well. So I read up on it a long time. And the Chinese and the Russians have been using it for cancer properties as well. So I read up on it a little bit and I wanna learn like why some compounds have such powerful adaptogenic properties. And for the listeners who don't know what adaptogens are, adaptogens are foods or herbs or things that help your body adapt to stress, meaning if

you need a stronger immune system, it'll strengthen your immune system. If your immune system is hyperactive, it'll help bring it down. So regulator. It's a regulator. It's an adapt. So it's got like multi, it's got lots of benefits. I feel like a regulator is a better name for it than a adaptable. It's an adaptable. The determined adaptogenic was coined a long time ago by I forgot who, but that's the word that

we use now. I was reading about the Chaga mushroom and it says that the... The Chaga mushroom itself really does a phenomenal job of resisting seasonal environmental stresses, including freezing temperatures. So the Chagamushroom grows in trees. It's a parasitic mushroom like they all are and it grows in trees.

It can avoid, it won't freeze the death oftentimes. It can survive UV, very powerful UV radiation. It can survive the invasion of pathogens. And so it's evolved this complex integrated defense system. And they think that these integrated defenses are what give the Chagum mushroom, it's adaptive genic health benefits. In other words, because it evolved to be so damn resilient

to all these stresses that when you consume the Chagum mushroom, this is probably why it's providing the similar amount of you adopt that. Yeah. So is it likely that we'll see things like Chaga is most likely going to be found in like immune boosting type supplements when you see something like that? Immune regulating.

It's got anti-cancer properties, anti-inflammatory, anecdotes, there's a lot of athletic anecdotes that say, some of the stamina and recovery. Anti-hypploglycemic. Yes, it's supposed to be really good at regulating blood sugar. Yeah, so it's got some interesting properties, but as I was running up, it was quite interesting.

I was like, oh shit, it's such a resilient mushroom and they think that may be why. No, it's been used, so check that out. I wasn't even deeper. It was used by the Persian physician, Avisina, who's a famous Persian physician. This is back in 980 AD. They used Chagamushroom extensively.

It's also been used since the 16th century in folk medicine in Russia and Siberia. And then the Russian state adopted it and they're as part of their medicinal programs, their pharma copia in 1989. So this is like, Chaga is a big deal. This is like ancient wisdom. We've just been dismissing as sort of like a

Houdu jubu stuff. I haven't been trying to come up with the name for that. Houdu jubu. It's Houdu jubu. It's a new way to describe it. Yeah. So it's again, it's like the King Mushroom and you know, when you read stuff like this, do they explain like how much of it you have to take in order to get these benefits? It was to take very minimal for you to get the reap the benefit. You know, I could look that up, but you could you could easily find what are considered recommended. Now, here's the thing, if you want to use it for acute medicinal reasons, I would suggest

you go to a health practitioner that, like Chinese medicine, aerovetic medicine, or somebody who has experience, because then they'll give you a specific dose. The supplemental dose is probably lower. So if you're going to supplement with something like Chaga on a semi-regular basis, you're probably not going to take massive doses, like you would if a practitioner found, oh, you know, you have, you know, we wanna work, we wanna use Chaga to help you with your blood sugar issues

along with all this other stuff. That's when I would recommend. Right, is there like, I mean, can you take too much of it? Like, of course. Yeah, right, so, I mean, I would assume that, like, taking it like small doses would probably be good for like a hormetic kind of response. Yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't recommend taking it small doses would probably be good for a whormedic response.

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend taking too much of anything. I think anything that is got a beneficial effect, probably as a negative effect if you take too much. I learned this lesson many times as a kid taking supplements. I was like, oh, five grams of creatine a day? 40. You know, 40 should be even better.

Diaria, anyway. More science and stuff. grams of creatine a day. 40. You know, 40 should be even better. Yep. Diarrhea. Anyway, more science and stuff. Article came out on porn. So they came out with another study on the... That's exciting. Yeah, I googled porn, the stupid study came out. They're on to you, dude.

Yeah. No, I was reading this article about the effects that pornography has on the brain in particular, binge watching porn, which if you looked at the consumption of pornography among young males, it mostly fits this pattern of what's known as binge watch. They'll watch it for an hour and they'll go between, different, they discussed it in the article, they're clicking on different tabs in there. You start out in the living room and then you just creep back into the closet.

You're like, how'd I get here? Well, they're, well, they're talking about how they're definitely connecting it to depression, erectile dysfunction, and how it's disrupting neural wiring in the brain, and they think that this will ultimately lead to an inability to achieve erectional orgasm, orgasm with a real life partner.

In similar ways that drugs do this to the brain, like if you use a lot of, let's say cocaine, and cocaine obviously produces euphoric, energetic feelings, if you use lots of cocaine, your brain and your body starts to adapt and down regulate things. And then what ends up happening is when you're not on cocaine, real life is far worse than it was before.

And then cocaine makes life feel kind of normal. So, so then you wanna get that feeling again, and so you have to go back to the substance. Yeah, and what they're saying in this article is that, especially with young men, and their teens, because their brains are still not fully developed,

that they could pretend they're theorizing there could be some, like long-term effect. Well, we've known this for a while now, right? Isn't this why there is like, you know, what is it, no fat November or whatever it is where nobody is? No, not November. Oh, no, what was the last one?

There was another, I don't know. There was another one. Yeah, yeah, I thought it was, there was one like that where, you know, no one's masturbating for the entire month, right? So, is that, is that what you're not November? Yeah. Is that what these are coming from? Yeah, I think, I think itself, people trying to self-regulate.

Yeah. They're like, you know, I got to get away from this. I wonder how many breakups have happened because of, you know, finding out their partner is consumed with porn. Too much of it. Right. It's actually becoming a bit of a problem. When you look up the statistics on why people see counseling with their partner, pornography

now is making them... I'm sure it, yeah. They must see, like, patients come in quite frequently. So in this article, they talked about how there's this new, like, the market is now providing all these solutions. There's apps that you could download to your phone and your computer that will block porn sites, even when you're trying to log in to it. It was just, for yourself. And in order to get on the porn site,'re trying to log in to it, it was just to for yourself.

Yeah. And that in order to get on the porn site, you have to take several extra steps, which may give you enough time to like, okay, maybe I shouldn't go on this or whatever. Yeah, but like crazy. Dude, yeah. Did you guys see like a broad break us because Mark McGrath had this like viral video happen, I guess. You know, Mark McGrath is the lead singer for Sugar Ray. Yeah. Like way back in the day. Yeah, yeah. Of course. I want to fly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm trying to remember the app, but I think it's, I forget the name of the app. We'll look that up. But basically, you get on this app and like they pay for you to do these cameo spots.

I think it's like cameo or something like that. And so you get them to kind of do like a shout out or whatever to like one of your friends or family or whatever. So somebody paid him to basically break up with his girl. And so he's like doing going through this whole thing and then like he lets her off nice and kind of describes him and his wife's relationship and all this stuff, but basically the guy pays him to break up with his girl.

Oh, that's okay. Someone pays Mark McGrath. Someone has to say the video, like she thought, it was like, oh, it's a shout out from Mark McGrath, you know, but he's breaking up with her. Yeah, for the guy. For the guy. Can you see the video?

Yeah, the video's great. Yeah, but I mean, he does, yeah. He does a great job. He's like trying to be nice about it and kind of relate with the person. What a fun, what is it? What's the, how much does he make off that? When would you pay?

Yeah, I do that. I wonder how much you made on that. I'm sure. Like you got to pay, like to pay for these videos. It's gotta be, and in order for him to shoot that or do that, it has to be decent amount of money to be worth his time. It's just on his phone.

Doesn't matter. You're still a busy, fucking guy. Which you do that, imagine you'd have to go through. You're not gonna buy some like, you know, random celebrity. Bro, he's not taking, he's got plenty of dickiness. Bro, it's sugar raised, you got plenty of time, bro. They haven't been done shit for a while.

No, he was doing something else. I can't remember, maybe look him up because I, he came across something he was in. I think he's still making music. I'm sure, I'm sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think he's still making music. I'm sure, I'm sure. He's not sure. Yeah, I think he's still doing stuff for sure. Most of these celebrities that whatever time they made it big,

if they're not like in rehab somewhere, they're doing something. Yeah, it's like, it's a 50-50 shot. They're either in fucking rehab and on what's the show called on VHone? Oh, I remember that one. With Dr. Drew. Yeah, yeah. What was that one called? If you're not on celebrity rehab, then you're probably still doing shit.

You know what I'm saying? What a depressing screeched, like, like, like, a nasty grand. What is this? Oh, what was his name? Dustin Dymond. Dymond. Damn, I remember these names because I grew up with him, man. Yeah. Like I totally forgot. I mean, now that you said, Mark McGrath is sugar ray, I remember now, but I mean, sugar ray was like, so such a small window, they were even a thing, dude.

That's like high school, and that was it. That show celebrity rehab was so depressed. Did you guys ever watch that? Yeah, I watched it. It was so- Like a train wreck, dude. Pressing to see them go through all that withdrawal. I feel like-

I feel like- I feel like- I feel like- I feel like- I feel like- all that withdrawal. I feel like anybody to do cheat and all those guys Oh, man They went off the rails. Remember when he was all who kept he was like he'll are roided out But he was all smoking cigarettes at the same time. Yeah, I was like bro You're you're using it wrong. I feel like it's it was it's good though for it's people There a lot of people still think that the that celebrities like have it all and have it all made and it's like you You they what they have is a lot of money in fame.

And I think those shows like that really highlight that's not the answer. It doesn't necessarily give you purpose. And I think that's, in fact, it exaggerates the fame and success so much that I think it makes, I think this swing is even harder. I would say this, if they did it study and they actually tested, you know, celebrities versus just the average person, okay.

So the average American versus the celebrity. I bet you the depression and the mental illness rate is far higher in celebrities than it is the average person. Oh, I would bet the same thing. I believe they've done like happy surveys on like famous people versus just average people as far as who's considered more happy. You know what I mean?

So it's funny because all the average people pressure and all the average people, oh my God, I wish I was like rich and famous and it's like, well, actually it's probably a bit of a curse if you're not like super solid with yourself, you know, but well, if you're totally wrapped into that identity in the moment, like, you know, you start losing favor or something happens, like, you know, well, I think it's getting worse.

I think it's getting worse now because the, like, back, two decades ago, to become famous, like, you would have to have written many songs that have gotten popular. You'd have to be on multiple shows before you got really, like one show doesn't do it. That's not enough to make you super famous or whatever. But we live now in this time where, you know, you could become famous like almost overnight

on YouTube or Instagram or Facebook. So, and then right away, generating tons and tons of money. So, I think that we're seeing a lot harder swings and crashes from these kids because you're starting to see these people that didn't really have put a lot of work in to get to that point.

And then all of a sudden overnight, they get all this success. And part of the importance of taking time is the lessons you have. All those lessons are so valuable. I was just gonna say that. I almost feel like before you become super popular, because we didn't, you know,

it's not natural for us to have that level of fame and popularity. That's a very rare, rare thing. So it's like you're gonna get there and then know how to deal with it naturally. It's just not, it's an unnatural thing. And to have that much access to things, I feel like you need to, you have to be prepared for, almost like you need to be trained, know

how to deal with it, be so solid with yourself. And then you get put into a position like that, and then you're able to handle it. Because I think if you take the average person, and you just make them famous, I think that they'll love it for approximately a week. And then they're going to be like, wow, this is terrible. I don that they'll love it for approximately a week, you know what I mean? And then they're gonna be like, wow, this is terrible. I don't like this. This is not, I feel empty. I can't go anywhere.

Probably longer than that, because you could numb yourself with a lot of cool stuff for a while. Yeah, that's what happens. You feel that you're distracting yourself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You got a bunch of money now and now you can start filling that void

with all that stuff. Drugs and stuff. Eventually, that does come back. And then it starts to get real dark. I mean, along those lines, start filling that void with all that stuff. Eventually, that does come back. Then it starts to get real dark. Along those lines, they just study on social media. Who was it that we interviewed that was the blue our minds on social media?

Near and near. Right, right, right. So this study kind of confirms what he was saying. So in this study, they actually took groups of people and they assigned them one group. You're gonna continue using social media and then they took other groups and they had them abstain from social media for one group for seven days, one group for 14 days, another group for 21 days, and another group for 28 days. And then the the scientists monitored the social media to make sure that they actually stuck with this.

And at the end of the study, they, sure that they actually stuck with this. And at the end of the study, they ask them questions like, how much are you working out, eating, what activities you're doing, how much TV you're watching, and this kind of stuff. And at the end of it, they rated their well-being. You know what they found?

There's no correlation between social media use and lack of well-being or well-being. In other words, the people that abstained from social media, even for the longest period, which is 28 days, had no improvement in their quality of life. Now, I would challenge that. Just like we would challenge a supplement study that lasted 28 days. Quality of life, purpose, things well-being, these things, in my opinion, take a lot more than 28 days to really sink in for anybody.

So I mean, I don't know if that's a, how good of a study that is. How many real life friendships do they have, like each one of these people, like, were they able to, you know, go in that direction or are they still isolating themselves in those 20 days? You guys make a good point because number one, lots of social media use may be a symptom and not the cause.

In other words, if someone's on social media all the time, it may be because they're depressed, it may not be causing the depression. Now the second part, and here's a second part to what you guys are saying, I think you make a good point. Just taking social media away, doesn't mean that they're replacing it with things that improve their well-being.

Right, exactly. So maybe if it was longer, they would be forced to, or maybe they'll figure out another way to fill their time like they do with social media. Like I'd like to see a study that says no social media, but we're gonna replace it with these positive activities, you know, these positive behaviors and then see just simply taking away. Right. Because to to nearest point they would you would just drop social media and then now that would be video game time or that would be what they would just drink or something else.

Yeah, they would just replace it with another distraction and I agree with him and that. I think that that's the case. We've always seen that. I just think that the accessibility of social media in comparison to any of these other things is like, I don't know, it's just, it's crazier than anything else that we've ever seen before.

Yeah, the way I would view it is, you know, let's say I than anything else that we've ever seen before. Yeah, the way I would view it is, you know, let's say I'm monitoring my kids, for example, I would monitor and see, oh wow, you're on social media a lot. Something must be, maybe you're feeling a little down or whatever, not that, oh, you're on social media a lot. The social media is causing you to feel down. So, and the reason why there's a difference there is,

if I think, if I don't think that way, I think a parent might be more apt to just say, no social media. Oh, that's what's making you sad. Get off social media. But your kids still not feeling great. Well, I think about it as like the way we get entertained from television, right?

So, you know, as a kid, we grew up obviously in an era that we had cable TV, so we could come home and watch your favorite shows. You know, the only difference now is your kids have all their favorite channels at the axis of their hand, 24-7. That's really the difference. And because if we were kids and we had that axis

to all your favorite TV shows, 24-7 around the clock, you'd be watching TV all the time too. So it's kind of like that. And so it's just to trip out on that a lot of times because knowing that your show is only going to be on Friday, you would plan your whole day to get back home after doing all the stuff outside, to drive back, to hang out and watch the thing.

It was an event. I feel like the whole event thing around all these shows and it's just been lost because everything is just right away. It is interesting, but I do think it's a symptom. I don't think he's right. I don't think it's a cause of the problem. It's a symptom of it and simply taking it away isn't going to solve the problem.

You have to replace it with something that's going to provide them with good value. I just think that it requires a level of planning and discipline more than anything we've ever seen before. When you go off to school, it's so easy. Yeah, your television is still at your house. As kids growing up, I didn't have that option. It wasn't the TV's not in my back pocket where these kids have the TV in their back pocket everywhere they go. And so the temptation to fill that time with that

versus communicating with other people, or socializing, playing games, physical games outside, it's just, it's higher than that. It's actually, just like I talked about earlier with pornography, you know, I didn't have to create structures and discipline around porn. I didn't have access to tons and tons of pornography.

Nowadays, you're probably gonna have to have structures and around your pornography use so that it's, you use it appropriately. Yeah, because it's exactly, you have to structure these things. Just like with anything else, like food. I tell you what, it's, they're all, the future is all about

discipline. Yeah, no 100% like if you believe in your theory which you've mentioned before that you know we're gonna see I mean everything that can be free will be free you'll be able to 3d print all the things more and more people are going to have anything and everything they've ever wanted in their life soon it will no longer be about that abundance Abundance, that's the root of all these problems. I mean, like even with the whole like news feed and everything, like everybody's getting these knee jerk responses to just, you know, pop up things that happen, but haven't really been, you know,

given the chance to really go through the content and see, like specifics, you know, of what this entails. And it's interesting because even now, they're looking even further at deep fakes. Like Google right now has this whole department devoted to trying to understand like the creation of these deep fakes, how to stay ahead of the deep fakes.

I mean, they're definitely not ahead of the deep fakes or way behind. They've, I guess they did like a bunch of like a hundred different videos of people walking down the street filming themselves like saying something to the camera. And then like in the studio, recreate it, put a different face on, you know, with AI. And then like, like presented it to like this, this group and asked them to determine like which one was the real, which one was the fake.

And it was like, they still, they yeah are. Yeah, they still are having a hard time distinguishing between the two. That's gonna be weird. So it's like, dude, and like the next elections and everything, I mean, they've already messed with, I guess, an Elizabeth Warren video where they made her like all sound drunk and everything, and then they found like that it was a fake,

you know, eventually they reported it, but some of these, they're not gonna be able to know, and then that's going to become facts because people are just like, or they won't know soon enough, right? They won't know, yeah, exactly. Yeah, eventually it really is first. Yeah, eventually it's going to be like, we don't believe anything. Yeah, it's going to get the really fast as what I'm saying. Like, this is going to get like really weird.

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First question is from Cole World. Are trap bar deadlifts as good as straight bar deadlifts? Oh, we did trap bar deadlifts on our post Thanksgiving workup. Hey, yeah. It's not that I don't think it's as good or not as good. It's different. Yeah, I, you know, I like, I actually like track bar deadlifts better for the average person than a straight bar deadlift

because you get a lot of similar benefits, not the same, it's a different exercise, but you get similar benefits, but it's easier to learn and to do properly. Less actual skill of having to, you know, like your mechanics aren't as like, like, there's not a whole lot. You have to teach in terms of like where you have to be specifically to otherwise, you know, like, you're going to, like, potentially get hurt if you do it wrong.

Yeah, the risks with straight bar deadlifts are higher than with trap bar deadlifts. There's more technical with the straight bar.lift or higher than with Trap Bar Deadlift. It's more technical with a straight bar. Oh, way more. And so your risk of injury is higher. Now that doesn't mean you're going to get injured. If you do both right, you're fine. It just means if you mess up a little bit,

you're probably more likely to mess up with a straight bar. And then because you mess up a little bit, you're more likely to hurt yourself with a straight bar. So now that being said, functionally speaking, okay. I think straight bar deadlifts have a, are a little bit, get the edge in terms of functional strength because when you're bending over to lift something up, it's typically in front of you.

So I think of lifting up at the end of a couch or helping your buddy carry something. Yeah, you're not grabbing in a neutral grip unless you're carrying a wheelbarrow or fucking portion carriage. Exactly. And your post-tearier base. Yeah, in case you're doing that.

Yeah, but I get a lot of similar benefits. So with the Trapar, a little bit more quad involvement, but I still get that back thickness feel from it. I get less low back involvement than I would with the straight bar, but the low back is still pretty heavily involved. I personally can lift about anywhere between 60 to 70 more pounds with a trap bar because the biomechanics are just, it's better, there's more advantage to it. If I could pull 600 pounds with a trap bar, then that means I probably have 530 with a straight bar, you know, type of deal.

Yeah, I use the trap bar with, I guess we should explain with the trap bar is for somebody who doesn't know what that is. That's true, right? So the trap bar, it's like a, what shape is that? Is that like an, it's a, it's a, it's almost like a, it's almost like a, it's a, it's almost like a, it's almost like a, they call it hex bars, right? It's a hexagon.

Yeah, so it's a hexagon is what it is. And then you stand in the middle, you stand in the middle of it and the, the hexagon goes all the way aroundagon, right? It's a hexagon. Yeah, so it's a hexagon is what it is. And then you stand in the middle of it, and the hexagon goes all the way around you, right? And then you grab in a neutral grip. It's two handles on the inside. Which is my favorite part, is that it's in a neutral grip. Right, so I use this a lot with like advanced age clients that I'm like training, right?

Because you can get the benefits, like you said, a lot of the benefits that you get for deadlifting without the, how being as technical as a deadlift. But I prefer to teach that with the idea that we're going to progress to a deadlift eventually. And in fact, sometimes as a trainer, it's tough to actually get somebody really good at the trap bar and then transition to a conventional deadlift because if you didn't teach them how to properly set up with the trap bar as if you were going to be deadlifting with them, their setup is different. A lot of people can just get bend down to grab the trap bar and then they pick up and then they're all quad in it and you know when I teach to get in set for a deadlift,

I'm teaching more of the sliding the hips out and hinging back versus bending over to get the bar. And that's part of the poor mechanics that I see when people deadlift is they bend over to pick the bar up to deadlift and setting yourself up already and not loading the posterior chain first is one of the number one flaws I see with people deadlifting.

And the other thing with the trap bar too is that there's two sets of handles on one and people don't know this. But if you most trap bars, you can flip it upside down and there's a second set of handles. And the handles on the backside of it are parallel or level to the weights where a straight bar will be. The ones on the top side, the handles come out and actually means you don't have to go down as low. And so when you use the upper handles, you're actually not doing as full of a range of motion

as you are with the straight bar, with the whatever the circumferences of a 45 pound plate. So that's something to consider too. If you use a trap bar, play around with the other sides, you go deeper. Also, to that point, that's the other group of people I like. Trapar is great for athletes. Oh, it's the best death lift for athletes. Right. Because it, it, it, it, it more closely relates to the, the position that you would be in in basketball and football and any sports rarely ever in sports

will you be in a full range of motion deadlift barbell off a floor type of position. You're more likely at a slight bend in the knee like you would be in a trap bar deadlift. So I think great for like explosive jumps. Yeah, I would do jumps with a trap bar way before I would do jumps with a bar on my back, doing like a squat or whatever. You figure your arms act a little bit like shock absorbers when you land, so you could really focus on the explosive movement. Yeah, well, I even like somebody like a Corey Slesinger who uses it like that same explosivity out of the movement of like a power clean, but you're just now basically using the trap bar and emulating that same movement with your hips and triple extension

But it's so much safer and way less to learn skill wise. Yeah, one of my favorite exercises that I more do now More recently that I never did when I was younger our heavy trap bar Farmer walks and this is something I learned I said I got you know started using because of map strong when I was younger, are a heavy trap bar farmer walks. And this is something I learned, I got, you know, started using because of map strong. And I'm map strong as part of their work sessions. You do farmer walks and it is recommended. You can do those with dumbbells too.

But a trap bar is great because you fit right inside the trap bar. When you can load it way heavy. You load it and you walk with it. Good form, stabilize your body, tighten your core. the trap bar when you can load it way heavy. You load it and you walk with it. Yeah. Good form, stabilize your body, tighten your core, and I just got great. Residem arms felt bigger from doing that just from holding on to that heavy one. That's my favorite. And then I mean, they do have some of those like handles where you can load plates.

And so you have like two different handles that you can load like a heavy farmer load. But it's still, I mean, you're going to have that shift to consider. So it's nice to have that kind of balanced load, too, to load up heavy and walk with. Next question is from Tim Craven. What are some exercises for someone to repair poor thoracic mobility? Yeah, so thoracic mobility, they're referring to the part

of the spine that's, well, the thoracic part of the spine, but this is up by where your shoulder blades would be. So it's kind of like your upper, upper, upper, middle, you know, middle back area. It's not where your neck is. That's a different part of the spine, but kind of up where your shoulder blades are. And if that part of your spine has poor mobility, either because it's tight, or even maybe because it's super loose but not strong, it can cause a lot of different kinds of problems. Now, the most common types of issues that people will get from poor thoracic mobility is neck tightness and stiffness

and shoulder problems. So it's an important thing to work on. Now people with a very mobile, thoracic area, or should I say, flexible one, that's not very strong. Now you start to get upper back pain and problems. This is where people feel mid back pain when they get stressed out or when they're sitting too long or whatever. How do you repair that?

Boy, there's a lot of phenomenal movements you can do. One of my favorites, I actually like lizard growth rotation to work on that rotational thoracic mobility. I know we did a video on that a while ago. I think you were the one in it, Adam. Yeah, and I'm going to redo that. Well, I'm actually going to do, this is a cool question. I didn't know whoever picked this, that you went this way because this was actually in

my notes for me to do a video on this on the YouTube channel. And I really want to do it because this is an area this is an area that I'm addressing right now. So I to improve to continually to work on my squat. So my squat is far from perfect still, but it's come a long way in the last two years. from perfect still, but it's come a long way in the last two years. The main focus was to address my ankle mobility and my hip mobility to where I can now sit in a really deep squat. Now, I still don't have great thoracic mobility. And what that looks like is when I at the bottom of my squat, I'm still got forward head and kind of rounded shoulders. It's really tough for me to control and stay in that really good retractive position in my head and a neutral position, especially with a loaded bar and deep in a squat.

And so I have two things that I do. So we've talked about this on the podcast before many times. We recommend when people find one or two things from Maps Prime Pro that you can tell you need to work on or greatly benefit your movement to just stick to those two and hammer them home and get good at for me. There's two things that I do every day before I work out, especially if I'm squatting to address this. Lizard with rotation is a good one though too, and though it's not the two main ones that I do. So I do our zone one test in prime one. Oh yeah, that looks like you. Which what I like about that is I use the wall for feedback, right?

So I put my back against the wall. I then tuck my chin so that I can feel that my cervical spine is in a neutral position. So my head is back and neutral where it should be. So I can feel that my cervical spine is in a neutral position. So my head is back and neutral where it should be. So I can feel it against the wall, so I can get feedback there. And then I put my arms up by my side. So my wrist, my elbows, my head, everything is being pinnate. And all I'm really doing there is you're waking up all those muscles in your back

are getting better connected with them that are responsible for keeping me And all I'm really doing there is you're waking up all those muscles in your back or getting better connected with them that are responsible for keeping me in that good neutral position or a retracted position as I go down. And so I'll do hold. So I'll get in that position, tuck the chin, drive the wrist and elbows back against the wall. And I'll push and push against the wall as hard as I can for five, like real similar to how I taught the combat stretch

where I lift my toes up and I'm trying to intensify that move. I'm also pushing against this wall with my head, my wrist and my elbows and driving against that to kind of get those all connected. And I do the same thing. Five second intense holds, relax, five second intense holds.

I do that for five times and I do two or three rounds. That's the first movement. And then the second one is something that I can do now that I wasn't able to do before. I've also done a video this on my Instagram where you may have seen me sitting down in front of the squat rack at the deepest position I can get. And then I grab a band. And I do band pull-aparts in that position. And while I'm doing the band pull-aparts, I'm also trying to tuck my chin back. I do that for a primer before I get in my squad.

Those two things, I've noticed the most benefits for me personally, even though I do like the lizard with rotation, but it's in my notes to retéche it because something I see people do wrong with the lizard with rotation is they just kind of go through the motion of doing the rotation. Sure that's decent for warming you up, but if the idea is to improve the mobility, you need to be challenging the in range of motion, which is, would mean taking that lizard with rotation to the end point and then challenging it by intensifying it there.

That's what's going to really increase the mobility. I noticed too, like something I was in a gymnastic class a long time ago when I was just trying to experiment and find out other forms of mobilities out there that people were using and when I was really getting into body weight training. And I found out when we were trying to do these tuck rolls where you know, you would do a handstand, then you'd try and tuck and then kind of roll out of it. I had a really fucking hard time with that.

And my thoracic spine was super stiff, and I couldn't get the flexibility out of it. It takes to be able to kind of roll into that rounded back position. And I know that this might be a common thing for guys or whatever that are, you know, trying to really build up their back and build up, you know, their chest and whatnot. But for me, it was challenging. So I tried to address it through a bunch of different ways

in like doing cat and cow and trying really to articulate my spine and to really push and get reconnected there to my thoracic spine was something that I definitely had to do as well as visit rounded back lifting. And so like hugging heavy medicine balls and placing them almost like an atlet stone lift or just squatting with rounded ball and like really squeezing it. Zercher squats.

Zercher squats is another great one. So just things like that to consider if that's a problem with your thoracic spine that you're dealing with. Yeah, and you'll actually sometimes find that people's low back pain is because of the poor thoracic mobility. I mean, if you're rotating and your thoracic spine is tight, you're still trying to rotate. So what ends up happening is for a lot of people's or low back takes over and they over rotate in their low back because it's kind of picking

up the slack. So sometimes, and sometimes it's often that I found this where one area hurts, but it's not because that area is the problem. It's because of the surrounding areas. It's almost always like that. It's rarely ever, I have low back pain because I have a bad low back. It's because something else is stressing the low back and I'd echo that. I think that it's really common that if you have poor thoracic mobility, more likely than not, you're also somebody who has the forward shoulder, forward head. You're distributing the weight forward. And so think about, and I used to give people the analogy

of what they were doing to their low back to get the point across, is that having grabbed like a 40 pound dumbbell and like slightly lean over, and then like just have them hold that for a second, and then within 30 seconds to a minute, they're like, oh my god, my low back is fatiguing out. And it's like, okay, that's what you're doing to yourself all day long.

I made you hold a 40 pound weight to exaggerate it, and so you notice it right away, but all day long, you're carrying your weight forward and like that, and so it's not being distributed evenly throughout your spine, and so you're getting all this stress in the low back, and so addressing thoracic mobility and getting to that place where you can address the upper cross engine with a forward shoulder I'm talking about.

A lot of times we'll alleviate somebody's low back pain. Next question is from McFlex. What are the benefits of strength training when battling depression and anxiety? Oh, wow. So, first I want to preface this by saying that we're not doctors. Therapists. Yeah, we're therapists. But I'm going to speak from just experience from working with clients and also working

with clients, doctors for, you know, train clients for years and oftentimes when they had a situation pop up, that would come up in their questionnaire. I would contact their doctor and then we would kind of work together. Now the studies are pretty clear now that any kind of physical activity or exercise has a very positive effect on anxiety and low to moderate types of depression.

In fact, in head-to-head comparisons against some of the most popular anti-depressant medications, exercise is as good in the medium term and in the long term, some studies even say that exercise is more effective. So it's definitely something that is extremely effective. Now, the problem, of course, is if I'm depressed and anxious, the last thing I want to do is go exercise. So it's kind of like, is if I'm depressed and anxious, the last thing I wanna do is go exercise. So it's kinda like, okay, like, which one do I do first? Like, I gotta get rid of this,

and this is how I get rid of it, but now because I feel this way, I don't wanna go exercise. So that's the hard part, but let's just say that you can will yourself to get to a gym or start being exercised. Number one, any type of activity should have a, as long as it's appropriate, should have a positive effect

on both anxiety and depression. That being said, I will make the case that strength training is the best form of exercise for these things, for a few different reasons. One, resistance training has, when done properly, has a very positive effect on hormones. And we know the role that hormones play in how we feel. So when men resistance training has been shown

to raise low levels of testosterone, low levels of testosterone, definitely can cause depression or anxiety in men. In women resistance training, when done appropriately, is a more effective way of balancing out your progesterone and estrogen balance, which when that's out, you can cause, it can cause anxiety of depression. Resistance training also is pro muscle, pro tissue.

Your body is trying, it actually starts to burn more calories as a result. And that just tends to feel good. If when a body becomes efficient with calories and slows itself down, as is the case with lots and lots of cardio, over time, this is just my own observation. Over time, that can start to make you feel a little bit depressed because your energy's lower.

Your body's becoming more efficient with calories, burning less calories. You may find that you have less energy. Strength training when done properly is very invigorating for the body. And it's also complex. It requires you to be present more than other forms of exercise, which tend to be repetitive. You know, like if I'm riding a bike or walking, you know, sitting, riding a bike for an hour, it could really make you sit in your depression a lot more. You could sit in your looping thoughts, but when you're lifting weights properly,

you're especially strength training. Yeah, you gotta pay attention. You gotta pay attention. Yeah, back squat 200 pounds and think about how depressed you are. Yeah, you're focused. That's hard to do. And it's also extremely,

what's the word, empowering. Yeah, if you go to the gym, let's say you're feeling down or whatever, but you're like, I'm willing myself to work out. I'm gonna work out, I'm gonna do it properly. Let's say you follow maps or you have a trainer. So you know what you're doing is right. You go to the gym and let's say,

today I did, you know, a hundred pounds on the bench press or I did seven push ups. Say I did seven push ups. I come to the gym tomorrow, I did nine push ups. Then they come back, you know, three days later, I did 12 pushups. It's hard not to recognize the connection between the work and the progress. It's very, very clear with strength training.

I'm getting stronger and then of course you're proving. Yeah, and that makes you feel good. Because your hard work results. That's like a great combination right there. And that makes you feel good because you're hard work result. That's like a great combination right there. No, I want to add to that. And again, not a therapist by any means, although I've experienced feeling like this, especially in the last couple of years coming off the testosterone, and this is close to home for

me. And one of the things though that I want to add to the point that Sal made is that I do agree that strength training of all the things that I was working on during this time was one of the number one things that helped me through it. But I also had to be okay with the fact that I might go to the gym today and it may be all yoga. Because here's the thing, when you get caught in a depression loop or have a ton of anxiety and stress going on in your life,

and then you also know that a heavy squat session is ahead of you today. Sometimes I just didn't have it in me to do it. And so I had to be okay with sometimes doing a workout that was less strength focused and more recuperative or working in where maybe it was sauna and stretching that day or was all mobility work or I just didn't quite have an in me to get after it. And so then I would just chase a pump and call it a day. It's okay that too, but nothing I think will physically benefit you more in the gym than strength training,

but also know that you don't have to put so much pressure on yourself that I've got to go in there, and because that's hard sometimes when you're in that place to get the mustard, to get up and go get after it, like you know you can do. And so I had set for myself personal goals and I would recommend the same thing for a client that was going through this.

For me, who was used to training six, seven days a week consistently, I told myself, listen, if I can get it in there and I could give myself three good lift days, of course I want my goals to go every day still, but as long as I get two to three good lifting days, that's an accomplished week for me. And so a lot of times I would go to the gym and it wouldn't be a hard, heavy day, but I'd

still make sure that two or three days of the week I was doing that. Yeah, I'm definitely not a, I'm going to put out a disclaimer as well. But I know that too, just a lot of times there's that internal chatter and there's all this like excess of energy that needs to be expanded, that your body a lot of times, it just wants to get rid of it. And that feeling of exhaustion, a lot of times it helps to then limit a lot of that excess amount of energy that's just stored in your body that makes its way up into your thoughts. And I think that just to be able to expel that to it definitely has its own benefits on its own. Yeah, there's, when you look at exercise

and you look at the literature on exercise and this is just from my understanding and depression, anxiety, you have the acute effects where right after the workout, you tend to feel a little bit of a mood lift and you feel a little bit better. When we look at strength training versus aerobic activity, they're pretty equal there with the acute effects. Now the long-term effects I'll argue

resistance training is better, mainly because of my experienced training clients and seeing how strength training just has better long-term effects on people generally anyway. Again, it speeds up the metabolism. It's very individualized. You can train your resistance training according to your goals, where it's with cardiovascular activity, tend to be stuck in the same repetitive motion or whatever. It's pro-anabolic hormone. It's pro-tissue, it's pro tissue, which is muscle. It's a long term as well, argue that's strength training.

It's also probably shines. I think it shines even more head to head, like you said, the first, I think it's pro-poster. And we know the connection that posture has with like depression. A feedback, right? A lot of times when, a lot of times when you see someone who's depressed,

you get to see it in their posture. Definitely. Their head is down, they're slouched way forward's depressed, you get to see it in their posture. Their head is down, their slouched way forward. Man, you get a great workout. How many of you ever walked out of the gym slouching over, you feel, no, your chest is up. You feel more upright than you felt all day after a workout.

And so, and that, you know, definitely has got to feed into feeling better also. So I would make the case style that it's even better than cardio because you could run on a treadmill or slouch over a stairmaster for an hour. Strengthen that slouching posture. Right. And still get a dopamine rush that's equivalent to what you got from weight training. But then weight training, you're also getting the benefits of posture. So I think it definitely surpasses super seeds cardio in that case.

Next question is from Tom LeBonk official. What are the benefits of caffeine cycling and how should I do it? Yeah, the benefits of cycling any type of a substance including caffeine that has such an acute effect on the body. Makes it awesome again. Yeah, is this.

When you look at a substance, you want to ask yourself, what are the benefits I'm getting from this? So this is what I've done this with caffeine. Yeah, am I taking this? Yeah, I look at caffeine, I think to myself, the benefits are, I get lots of energy, I'm up, I feel less pain. I'm a better human.

I feel more motivated, my athletic performance goes up. So I want to get those benefits from caffeine. Now, what are the negatives that I can potentially get with caffeine? Well, I can get nervous. It can affect my sleep. It can cause elevated heart rate. It can affect my digestion maybe poorly.

So I wanna maximize the positives and mitigate the negatives. Well, here's what happens when you use a substance like caffeine consistently. Your tolerance goes up very quickly with caffeine. Because your tolerance goes up, you need more and more to try and get some of the benefits. But as your, your, the amount increases so do the negatives. And at some point, the negative start to outweigh the positives. So the benefits of caffeine cycling are maximizing the benefits, minimizing the negatives, but it takes discipline. So like for me, I found that caffeine three days a week

is ideal. Three days a week, I have about two to 300 milligrams of caffeine before my workout, because that's when I get the most benefit. And the days in between, I don't have any caffeine at all. When I have it every single day, I notice that after a short period of time, because caffeine really, you get intolerance caffeine

very quickly. I noticed that having a daily, it time, because caffeine really, you gain tolerance caffeine very quickly. I noticed that having a daily, it just starts to turn into, I need caffeine to feel normal, which to me is very much, I've lost the benefit. This is true for a lot of substance. Everything, yeah, pretty much anything. Yeah, I think it's with all drugs.

I mean, caffeine is a drug, and it's one that we, it we socially accepted. We all do it. There's a Starbucks in every corner. But the reality of it is, I mean, personally, if I want to enjoy the benefits of the drug, the same way I did the first, you know, handful of times that I had it, I have to cycle off it to get that same feeling. So, and this is so individualized, right? I mean, if you looked at mind, sal, Doug, and Justin's caffeine consumption, it's all different and it's to each their own. You know what I'm saying?

Like some, I really enjoy a cup of coffee every single morning. I don't know if I'll ever, I mean, when I cycle off, I don't have it, but I don't think I would consistently do something that Sal is doing where I have a few days of it. Yeah, only a few days of week. I enjoy having a cup of coffee every single morning. It's just something I enjoy to do.

But I also have just these things that I pay attention to. And that is, you know, one cup of coffee turns into two, then turns into three, then turns into four. And, you know, before I know it, I'm doing that. And then I'm having a pre workout or having energy during on top of it. And so I know myself and what kind of like how that scales. And so I just kind of have this,

hey, once I get to a point where I'm having, you know, four cups of coffee, which sounds like a lot, but I'm actually saying real four cups. Like most people's mug is a cup and a half in itself. Like once I get to a place where I've drank four cups of coffee, which is basically two big cups that I'd have in the morning, once I'm like reaching for more, that's always my sign to go back the other direction.

And that's just kind of how I always do it. And I go back the other direction by scaling back first, which that four cups is now like three to two to two and a half, to eventually one to then going to a fast where I'm off of it completely. And for me, it only seems that I have to take about a week or two of none at all to get that same feeling when I get back on it.

It's the same thing that I met when I mess with things like cratum, it's the same way that I mess with things like cannabis. I noticed the same type of effects. I, something that could be start with me just a little bit, every single day to multiple times in a day. And once I feel myself scaling up on any of those types

of drugs, I wing myself off slowly, then I go to a fast. And then depending on how long, I'll fast a little bit longer with weed typically. But with caffeine, I take about a week or two off and then come back and it feels like it's the first time I've had caffeine again. Yeah, the slow weaning process is more tolerable, isn't it? Because it's like going from four cups to none.

That's not going to happen. Oh, it's brutal. It's brutal. So there's a different way, there's a few different ways you can cycle it. The way Adam's talking about, I think, is a better way to do it if you want to come down. And what I've typically recommended to clients was to reduce their caffeine intake by a quarter every week. So after four weeks, they're off.

So it gives them a four week period. So it's like, four cups goes to three, do that for a week, goes down to two, goes that for a week one, and then none, and then reintroduce it. The other way you could do it is by doing what I'm doing now, which I actually prefer this because I hated the complete fast so much. Like, I hated the week that was off. My workout sucked. It was terrible. And I didn't like it when my tolerance was up either. There was like a few weeks there that sucked too. So the other way to do it is just to use it in a way that doesn't require you to cycle it.

Like, again, like what I'm doing three days a week, I don't need to cycle it. It's just three days a week. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, that's it. I'm strict with that. I never have to go completely off. And I avoid that. Yeah, I think if you're using it less than, I mean, if you're, yeah, if you're using it less than what you're off of it, you're going to be fine. Yeah. It's when you start getting to where we're at, where it's every day, and then it's if you're using it less than what you're off of it, you're gonna be fine. It's when you start getting to where we're at,

where it's every day, and then it's multiple times a day, and then you're just enjoying that cup, man. I'm gonna be honest, that's one of those things, I have gone off before, but it was just like, oh, God, this is not my existence. Well, I like the ritual of it. Yeah, I really do. I enjoy the smell of the coffee brewing in my house

in the morning. I enjoy sitting down and reading articles and sipping on the coffee. So for me, it's not just the caffeine effect, although that's obviously an amazing side effect of it. It's the ritual of it. It's like a cognitive prime for me. I mean, for me, I need that that that that length of time drinking it in order to arise and become aware of my world in front of me. That first cup for me is not going to leave, but the rest of it comes zero. Yeah, the rest of it, I will scale based off of just like you guys are talking about. They can get to a point where your workouts, you just don't have the energy and you know

that you need the stimulant to be able to fuel that energy into the workout, that's a problem. I don't need that. I don't need something right beforehand to get me up and lively. So I do adapt to it very quickly. Yeah, that's it. caffeine consumption is really exploded

more recently with the widespread consumption of coffee and energy drinks. Yeah, because coffee wasn't consumed by teenagers or recently with the widespread consumption of coffee. Energy drinks. Yeah, because coffee wasn't consumed by teenagers and kids in their maybe in their 20s in college, but definitely not teenagers. And coffee was an old person's drink and it tasted gross. Now they're drinking coffee. Energy drinks didn't really exist.

I mean, the only energy drink I can remember as a kid was Jolt Cola and I think it had 50 gram, 50 million Jolt Cola and Mountain Dew. I mean grams, 50 milligrams. Yeah, that's right. Jolt Cola and Mountain Dew. Mountain Dews weren't, those weren't Kassin. And those weren't considered energy. They're nothing, dude. No, no, no.

It's like 48 milligrams of caffeine, which is, which is nothing. So consumption has gone up. Now caffeine itself is not bad, but if you have an intolerance to it or you're sensitive to it, it could be very bad. And this is different from person to person. My tolerance for caffeine is weight, Doug and I have a very low tolerance to caffeine in comparison to Justin and Adam.

So the appropriate amount for me or Doug is far different than the appropriate amount that would be for Adam or Justin. I also think this room, this conversation reminds me to, reminds me of that old sign filled episode where they master my domain. Do you remember that one? You don't remember that?

Yeah, master of your domain and they're talking about fasting from masturbating, right? I find if I catch myself using words like need or have to or things like that, I always challenge myself. I don't want ever to fill dependent on anything like that. I see the connection between the episode of masturbating. I'd say it's being addicted to anything. Right, right.

So you brought up porn earlier in this episode. And it all, to me, it's all the same. It's all, whether it be a physical energy addiction or a mental stimulation addiction. Totally. Anytime I catch myself saying I have to or I need or I want every day, I always challenge that and then I always restrict myself to prove that I'm in full control of this meat wagon.

And not slave to anything and I think that's a good practice in anything. And I mean, the ritualization of morning coffee is definitely a piece of why it's so hard to stop. And supplement companies who do pre-workout supplements, so the first ones to come out with pre-workout supplements were brilliant because they understood that if they took a product that you could feel like, and it's got full stimulants, that you could ritualize, have this before your workout

because what does every fitness person do? Workout, how do we ritual? If you could ritualize a supplement, you have made a lot of money. They did. And they did, and I- That's why it's the number one seller for every supplement.

And I know a lot of people who work out who do not work out Unless they have a pre workout which I find pretty fascinating because that was never a thing when I was when I was going up And with that go to mine pump free calm and download our guides and our resources They're all absolutely free. You can also find all of us on Instagram You can find Justin at mine pump Justin. You can find me at mine pump sal and Adam at mine pump Adam Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at Mind Pump Media.com.

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